Tag Archives: The Tea Set

A brief look at the bands the Pink Floyd members were part of before the Pink Floyd formed and started going places! Feel free to discuss this article on the forum when read.

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Being in the right place at the right time and meeting the right people seems key to success in the music industry. A love of the new music pouring in from the USA in the form of Rhythm and Blues numbers, which allowed young teenagers to rebel against their parents Jazz and classical collections, would have inspired young men the country over to pick up a guitar and form a R&B band!

The death of Roger Barrett’s father and the flying of the nest of his siblings meant that Barrett’s liberal mother allowed up to 30 young people at a time to invade a room in her house to jam and listen to the new music, play guitars and smoke the occasional joint. Barrett was very much a shining beacon on the Cambridge music scene.

Above: Syd Barrett with Those Without in 1964Below: David Gilmour on performing live with Jokers Wild in the mid 1960s.

Barrett played in his first band Geoff Mott & The Mottoes in Cambridge during the spring of 1962. He then moved on to Those Without from June – September 1963. Meanwhile, David Gilmour played several times in Cambridge in 1962 and 1963 in his first band, The Ramblers, although only playing a couple of shows with them. He went on to play more shows with his second band Chris Ian & The Newcomers and later just The Newcomers when Chris Ian departed. David would then go on to play semi-professionally with Jokers Wild and play quite a few dates around Cambridge as a local hero having taken to the guitar!

The London Scene was also the place where several bands were formed by other members of what would later become Pink Floyd. Nick Mason, Richard Wright and Roger Waters were all based in London and, from Autumn 1963, were playing in various bands. Sigma 6 was up first as a jamming group. This band was put together by Clive Metcalf whilst Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright were attending Regent Street Polytechnic. It would then morph into The Abdabs and, occasionally, even The Screaming Abdabs!

It was in Autumn 1964 that Syd Barrett had left Cambridge and had joined his future Pink Floyd band mates to play in the band The Spectrum Five. It would soon become Leonard’s Lodgers as Leonard, landlord to some of the Floyd at the time, had a PA system so was most welcome in the band!

In January 1965, the collection of people currently rehearsing as Leonard’s Lodgers would become one solid unit with varying names such as The Pink Floyd Blues Sound, The Pink Floyd Sound, The Tea Set and, eventually, just The Pink Floyd! It was as this group, after Chris Dennis (vocalist) left Barrett, Waters, Mason, Klose and Wright to their own devices, that they recorded their first demo as The Pink Floyd in the Regent Street Polytechnic during some studio downtime. These three tracks were the cover of a Slim Harpo R&B standard ‘I’m A King Bee’, and three Barrett original compositions ‘Double O Bo’, ‘Butterfly (AKA ‘Flutter By Butterfly’)’ and ‘Lucy Leave’.

An early incarnation of The Pink Floyd with Bob Klose back right.

Bob Klose, who was playing guitar, left the band in the summer of 1965 as his parents were moaning at him due to his lack of commitment to his studies. When term break came, Barrett started his first serious relationship with Lindsay Corner and had his first acid trip in Cambridge with friend Dave Gale. It was liquid LSD 25 dropped haphazardly onto sugar cubes so they took rather large doses! Barrett had hold of a orange, a plum and a matchbox. The fruit represented Venus and Jupiter apparently and Storm Thorgerson would use this story to embelish various works of art in the future!

With the only accomplished musician Bob Klose gone, the rest of the band simply couldn’t compete with all the other bands playing R&B tracks so had to change direction slightly! Extended jams around basic chord structures were one option which they took up much to the delight of the underground scene. These extended jams earnt them much praise from the local music scene and, not too long down the road, from around the world.

So, the Floyd and Syd’s downfall had begun.Births

1943 September 6th – Roger Waters born Great Bookham, Surrey 1945 January 27th – Nick Mason born 1945 July 28th – Richard Wright born 1946 January 6th – Roger Keith Barrett born 1946 March 6th – David Gilmour born

00-00-1964 – The Marquee, Soho, London. They played as extras in an unidentified film.

The band also played at various private parties but never played any other music venues. They rehearsed at Regent Street Polytechnic often in addition to the flat of Mike Leonard much to the annoyance of the neighbours!

The group of people below played a handful of gigs together changing their name when the situation required it! They recorded once under the name The Tea Set material which has not yet been unearthed. They also recorded a 7 inch acetate single featuring un-released songs Lucy Leave and King Bee.